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Operation Elveden: senior Met officer DCI April Casburn charged
Lisa O'Carroll guardian.co.uk Monday 24 September
DATELINE: 24/9/12
A police officer has been charged with misconduct in public office after allegedly contacting the now-defunct News of the World with information, the Crown Prosecution Service has announced. Detective chief inspector April Casburn, who works in specialist operations at the Metropolitan police, has been accused of contacting the paper on 11 September, 2010 after the CPS examined a file sent to them by officers on Operation Elveden investigating alleged inappropriate payments by journalists to police and other public servants.
Alison Levitt, QC, the principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, said in statement that Casburn had "wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in that office". Casburn is due to appear at Westminster magistrate's court on 1 October.
The full DPP statement read: "We have concluded, having carefully considered the file of evidence, that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge DCI Casburn with misconduct in public office. The particulars are that on 11 September 2010, April Casburn, being a public officer, and acting as such, without reasonable excuse or justification, wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in that office. This charge relates to an allegation that DCI Casburn contacted the News of the World newspaper and offered to provide information."
Eight people, including Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and No10 director of communications, were charged in July with conspiracy to intercept voicemails and will appear in court on Wednesday for a hearing.
A further seven individuals, including the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, will appear in the same court on Wednesday for a plea hearing in relation to charges that they conspired to pervert the course of justice by allegedly concealing information from police working on Operation Weeting, the Met investigation into phone hacking.
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Last modified: Monday, September 24, 2012
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More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
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The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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Previous stories
Journalism Ethics
NI may face 230 new claims over alleged phone hacking
Phone hacking: detectives arrest Tom Crone
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